The present invention relates to a folding play crib structure.
A play crib is important to an infant as the crib prevents the infant from falling down onto the ground due to negligence. However, the early play crib has considerably large volume. Therefore, a folding crib is developed for easy storage.
Taiwanese Patent Publication No. 218102 discloses a conventional folding play crib which is mainly composed of upper, lower and lateral support rods, connecting sleeves, folding bodies, leg tubes, pivot bodies and U-shaped base frames. One end of the upper support rod is pivotally connected with the connecting sleeve by a locating member and the other end thereof is fixedly connected at the folding body. The lateral support rod is fixedly connected between the connecting sleeve and the leg tube and the lower support rod is pivotally connected between inner leg tube and the pivot body. The two U-shaped base frames are pivotally assembled with the pivot bodies into an integral body. The above conventional folding crib is characterized in that the folding body is formed by radially arranged right rod members having dented grooves in which a resilient member and an insert block are disposed. The insert block is formed with a periphery corresponding to the dented groove of the right rod member and is left and right slidable therein. Sector-shaped projections are formed on left side of the insert block and corresponding sector-shaped projections are formed on right side of the left rod member to interlacedly engage with one another. The left rod member, insert block, resilient member and right rod member are fixedly assembled with the pivot shaft into an integral body by a nut. A tenon is disposed at one end of the pressing block to be engaged with and located on the left rod member for pressing the insert block. Accordingly, when the upper support rod is horizontally supported with the folding bodies parallel to each other, the folding bodies are fixedly locked without folding and the entire structure is firmly supported without deforming. When pressing down the pressing block, the folding bodies are unlocked and foldable and the whole structure can be folded for storage.
The pivot body is a V-shaped seat body and equally spaced recesses are formed at two ends thereof for pivotally connecting with corresponding projections of the connecting sleeve. A sleeve section formed at one end of the connecting sleeve is used to locate the lower support rod. A hole is formed at a central portion of the lower end of the pivot body for the pivot shaft to pivotally connect with the U-shaped base frame. Accordingly, four lower support rods and two U-shaped base frames are interlacedly connected under the crib structure for stably supporting the same. The pivot body structure permits the crib structure to be folded toward the center thereof into a small frame body which will not occupy much room. In addition, the U-shaped base frame is formed with multiple inner reinforcing ribs and a hole at one end for pivotally connecting with the pivot body, Whereby the crib structure is more reliably supported.
Several Shortcomings exist in the above arrangements as follows:
1. The support rods are folded by means of the right and left rod members of the folding body, which are formed with radial dented grooves in cooperation with the insert blocks and resilient members. However, when folded, the left rod members are pressed from one side to downward press and fold the support rods. Therefore, the left rod members are likely to be touched by mistake. Moreover, the support rods are downward foldable so that in case the folding body is pressed and folded downward incautiously, the crib will collapse suddenly. This will cause danger to the infant sleeping in the crib.
2. The folding body of the conventional folding crib has complicated components so that many molds are necessary for manufacturing the folding body. Therefore, the manufacturing cost for the folding crib is relatively high.
3. The conventional folding crib is composed of the V-shaped seat body, lower support rods and U-shaped base frames which are pivotally assembled to form a supporting structure for the crib. Such assembly has excessively large space between respective components so that the folding board is often depressed in use. This is unsafe to the infant sleeping in the crib.